Personal Recollections of Kingston Point by Dorothy Chipp King

Kingston Point Hotel and dancing pavilion, Kingston Point Park, lagoon bridge in foreground. Hudson River Maritime Museum.

In the early part of this century Kingston Point was the only park in the city. As Columbus Point it had been historically important from very early times. Whether Hendrick Hudson stopped there when in 1609 he sailed up the great river which now bears his name is a moot question, but it certainly became a trading post early in the seventeenth century and tradition has it that the British landed there when they burned Kingston in 1777. Important in Colonial days, it gradually sank into obscurity, to be revived by its purchase in 1893 by the late S.D. Coykendall.

In the same year the old horse-drawn cars were replaced by electric trolleys, and in 1896 the Ulster and Delaware Railroad made it a terminal, meeting the Day Boats there and conveying their passengers to their destinations in the Catskills. In 1902 the rival line, the Colonial, was bought by Mr. Coykendall, and, the two lines combined, covered the greater part of the city, making Kingston Point delightfully accessible to the whole population. In a day when the automobile was practically non-existant and comparatively few families had horses and carriages, the only way for the average citizen to get around was on foot or by trolley. On a hot night in summer it was pleasant for the whole family, perhaps with guests, to board one of the "open trolleys," with seats running across the car, breeze down to the Point at an outlay of ten cents per person, round trip, and amuse themselves, according to age and inclination, with what the park had to offer.

There was a merry-go-round for the children (the two largest and best horses were named for the Spanish War heroes, Gen. Shafter and Gen. Miles) and various and sundry games. For the lover and his lass, there were canoes for rent in which to paddle idly round the lagoons, or more rashly on the river, and there were secluded seats in the shadowy parts of the wooded area for what was then called "spooning." For adults there were still pictures shown on a screen, the forerunner of the cinema, and there was "Morphy the man who sings to beat the band" and did he sing to beat the band! A large man, clad in white suit and cap, with a nautical air, his vocal effects were fortissimo to the nth degree! There were picnic tables at which to eat lunch or supper, there was Bath Beach where bathing in the river could be enjoyed, and there was the arrival of the Day Boats, north and south bound. The river played an important role in travel to New York and Albany. If time were no object, it was a delightful way to go to town, though for the very young the night boats, the Baldwin and the Romer, were more exciting. To go to bed in Kingston, and wake up in the great metropolis with a whole day to spend before the Mary Powell brought one home was a rare treat in those days.

My own recollections of Kingston Point, assisted by the diary which all young girls kept in my time, are especially connected with two dates, 1908 and 1909. On May 29, 1908 the Point was the scene of an impressive ceremony. I was a student at Vassar College then and a number of my classmates were visiting me. We went down to Kingston Point to see the flotilla come in, the escort of the ship bearing Gov. George Clinton's remains from Washington where he died in 1812, while serving as vice-president of the United States, to Kingston, the scene of his inauguration as governor of New York. The unusual sight of the U.S. Navy ships in the river, five destroyers and two sub-marines, the salutes exchanged, the crowds massed there was an interesting experience. The next day, alas, a heavy rain set in and the funeral parade up Broadway to the First Dutch Churchyard where Gov. Clinton's body was interred with pomp and circumstance was marred by the weather. The gloom was considerably lightened for us, however, by the fact that my father's friend Capt. W.H. Webb U.S.N.RET. brought a suitable number of young naval officers to call on us. Among them were acting captains Bingham, Marquart and Daniel and we had a delightful time with these young men. During the weekend, Mrs. Thomas J. Hickey took some of us out to the torpedo boat DeLong. As soon as the officers heard my and my sister's name they looked at us with more attention and brought out from what looked like lockers in the wall of the officers mess-room where they were entertaining us where ship's papers and the log of George W. DeLong who commanded the Jeannette in the ill-fated Arctic expedition in which my father's cousin Lt. Charles Winans Chipp U.S.N. perished, in 1881.

In 1909 there occurred the Hudson-Fulton Celebration and again the river was full of ships , including the replicas of the Half Moon and the Clermont which were anchored off the Point. Some of the ships bore men that day who have since become famous. On the Worden was Lt. Harold R. Stark, later chief of operations at the time of Pearl Harbor. On the Dupont was Lt.  William F. Halsey, later an admiral and one of the outstanding figures of World War II.

In those days before we had bridges across the Hudson I had some other less agreeable experiences at Kingston Point, for while I was at Vassar we had winters of extremely low temperatures. For two different years, the ferry stopped running for long periods and one was obliged to cross the river in a horse-drawn sleigh or on foot, both of which I did no two or three occasions. It was an eerie experience at any time, but in the late winter just before the break-up of the ice it was a nerve-racking one.

For many years now Kingston Point has suffered an eclipse, the change from trolleys to busses, the withdrawal of the great river boats, the fact that people now go to the Catskills by car instead of by train, the establishment of parks in other parts of the city has changed the situation. On the other hand, boating, water-skiing and allied sports are at a peak in this country and many more people now enjoy cruising on the lovely river at our doors. With that fact in mind a number of citizens interested in the welfare of Ulster County, have obtained promise of support from the Federal, the State and the city governments with the view of purchasing and maintaining Kingston Point as a park, so perhaps in the future a new and better Kingston Point may rise, like a phoenix, from the ashes of the old one, and our grandchildren may disport themselves, as we did, in that charming old playground, finding delight in the beauty of the Hudson and relaxation in new and more exciting water sports.

Crowds strolling at Kingston Point Park with ferris wheel, Hudson River and buildings in background. Hudson River Maritime Museum.

Author

Dorothy Chipp King's recollections were published in the Kingston (NY) Daily Freeman, August 23, 1962.

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